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Various.
A substantial collection of British musical hall carte-de-visites, almost entirely signed or inscribed to musical comedian Cecil Holson.
Publisher: Edinburgh, Leeds, Newcastle, Sunderland etc.;
Date of Publication: 1910
Stock Code: 15341
Fifty-three photographic carte-de-visites of various musical hall performers of the turn of the century, of which thirteen are inscribed to Cecil Holson and twenty-three are signed by the performer, thirty-six autographs in total. The first card depicts the compiler of the collection, Holson, with his stage partner in costume. Occasional edge-wear, creasing, and toning. One card cut in half. A well-preserved collection. An eclectic collection of carte-de-visites assembled and owned by British music hall comedian Cecil Holson (fl. 1900-35). Holson, and his partner Bert, were identified as ‘dancing comedians’ on playbills, and toured the British music hall scene in the first decades of the twentieth century. The most famous performer of the collection is surely George Formby Sr (1875-1921), ‘the Wigan Nightingale’ who inspired Charlie Chaplin’s character ‘The Tramp’. The cards exemplify the British variety act in the truest sense - the performers include both male and female comic duos, magicians, contortionists, gymnasts, burlesque troupes, ‘dolly girls’, clowns, singers, musicians, dancers, pantomime actors, drag acts (both male and female), performers in Orientalist and racist costume, a strongman, an escapologist miner and violinist, and a woman on a bicycle identified as a ‘cyclery buffoon’. This was Holson’s social and professional set, and a number of the inscriptions reference joint performances and fond encounters. The cards identify printers, photographers, and performances largely in Scotland and the North of England, including Edinburgh, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sunderland, and Leeds. Almost all of the performers are now completely obscure. These jobbing entertainers, often from working class communities, brushed shoulders with enduring stars like Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy, but are now only represented in ephemera such as these cards. Coherent collections from single owners such as this are rare, and invite further research into the networks of working class, provincial entertainment from which they were derived.

£250.00